ABSTRACT
This book explores a particular economic phenomenon of our time, the emergence and development of industry clusters, asking the question why this kind of industrial organization reappeared in the advanced economies after it had more or less disappeared in the mid-twentieth century. It sets that question in the framework of a much larger one that has troubled many development economists, regional scientists and politicians with a concern about social and geographical inequality since Malthus first asked Ricardo why some nations are rich and others poor. This larger question was investigated recently and not entirely satisfactorily answered by David Landes (1998) who explained it in terms of the presence or absence of a cultural will to ‘live for work’. Tautology apart, to live for work entails some things that this book is also interested in, namely, capabilities of learning and innovation as key economic instruments. These two concepts are at the heart of the idea of a ‘knowledge economy’. But what Landes and others, like Fukuyama (1995; 1999) regard as normal, that is, individualistic competition in an ordered, economic equilibrium where thrift and honesty are justly rewarded, the argument that develops over the next eight chapters takes as abnormal. The knowledge economy consists of fragmentary ‘knowledge economies’. This is for three key reasons concerning, first, disequilibrium or economic and social imbalance, which is not presumed to be unusual but quite the contrary. Second, collaborative economic action, is presented here as the most important organizational aspect of modern capitalism, but also one that has been vital to market economies from the start, despite the presumption in much economics that only individuals matter. While, third, the systemic nature of strategic competitiveness in the capabilities of specific groups of private and public actors to produce and implement actions based on consensus is of more importance than individual opportunism.
